Igor Vamos - The Art of the Prank

July 17, 2026July 17, 2026

Prank Artists or ___ Artists? You Decide

A production budget between $2.5 million and $5 million changes the dynamic from a Yes Men corporate prank to something entirely different.

Here are two articles, one day apart, about Northland Tales, an unscripted prank comedy series, produced by the Yes Men’s Igor Ramos (and others) and financed through CBC, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, and the Indigenous Screen Office. The show purported to use pranks for “social action” to address “historical injustices.”

When two interviewees, Frances Widdowson and Lindsay Shepherd, separately expressed concerns about the truthfulness of their interviewers, CBC paused production. Frances Widdowson, sensing something was “off” during her interview, live streamed it to social media (see below).

Article #1:
CBC pausing production on satirical Indigenous show, by Mark Gollom, CBC News, May 20, 2026.

Article #2:
The CBC’s Northland Tales scandal isn’t about bad taste—it’s about what happens when public money funds deception, by The Hub, May 21, 2026.

Frances Widdowson’s live stream in the middle of her interview with “Mike Smith” (aka Igor Vamos of the Yes Men):

April 30, 2011December 15, 2023

The Yes Men Interviewed

Meet the Yes Men, the Political Satirists Who Punked GE
The Atlantic
April 22, 2011

A conversation with the more than decade old group that delights in mocking the powerful by pretending to be them

General Electric likes their tax rate low, according to CEO Jeffrey Immelt. Very low. Despite $5 billion in profit last year the company paid no income tax and received a $3.2 billion tax benefit, according to The New York Times. Which is less than low: It’s taxpayer padded.

Then Immelt was tapped to be an outside economic adviser to the Obama administration, which has been decrying low tax rates for companies and the rich.

Very embarrassing. Continue reading “The Yes Men Interviewed”

July 20, 2009December 15, 2023

Yes Men Go BeyondTalk.net

Political Pranksters Say Latest Climate Venture Is Not Hot Air
by Joshua Rhett Miller
FoxNews.com
July 16, 2009

An Internet-based group of activists who specialize in political pranks say they”re seriously determined to expel all the hot air surrounding the highly combustible issue of climate change.

0_61_climate_200 Igor Vamos, aka Mike Bonanno, says The Yes Men’s latest venture, beyondtalk.net, is the real deal. But can the Yes Men — a group that has previously lampooned former President George W. Bush and impersonated officials from Dow Chemical and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — be taken seriously?

Igor Vamos, one of the Yes Men’s founders, claims the Yes Men’s latest venture, beyondtalk.net, is completely authentic. The group is seeking “like-minded people” to participate in non-violent acts of civil disobedience to coincide with the U.N.-hosted Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December. Continue reading “Yes Men Go BeyondTalk.net”